From Germany comes this deft mixture of European sensibilities and the modern horror film. Paula (Potente of Run Lola Run) is an ambitious German medical student who has recently gained acceptance into a top anatomy class in Heidelberg taught by a prestigious professor whom she has long idolised. Immersed in her studies, Paula is soon horrified to discover that several of her classmates have died under mysterious circumstances, and it is not long before she and a group of fellow classmates discover a secret society of students that regularly performs autopsies on live specimens! Filmed on location in Heidelberg, Germany.
I knew about this film because I was in love with Franka Potente, the lead actress from Run Lola Run.
Lovely as she is in this slasher, the same cannot be sa... more >
I knew about this film because I was in love with Franka Potente, the lead actress from Run Lola Run.
Lovely as she is in this slasher, the same cannot be said about the film as a whole. It necessarily had a lot of "Friends" feel to it and I can see a lot of Hollywood concepts in this film (God forbid a worse remake) like the playful side plots of casual romances between the characters and perfectly polarised range of personalities (the angry one, the slutty one, the doer, the possible-culprit-yet-not-quite et cetera).
It's a decent premise at first really. A promising medical student gets the chance of a lifetime to attend the prestigious Heidelberg Institute for physicians and surgeons. She befriends a fellow student and a terminally-ill drifter on the train on the way there and they get accustomed to life on campus. Horror of horrors, the two girls are shocked to find the drifter on the dissecting table in one lecture. As events unfold, we are shown the possibility that there might be a sinister conspiracy going on in the institute.
I feel that this film would have been a bigger hit if it were a drama instead of a "Scream"-type action movie. It was suspenseful and it was quite exciting I would say but it's not the kind of terror that lasts years after you've seen the film. The story disintegrates into a shock-value number in the last quarter as we are shown some rather unimpressive twists, included no doubt to convince us that this isn't another thoughtless run-of-the-mill gore fest. The special effects are pretty good I must say and I've read on IMDB that the models of preserved human bodies are so well done it has been offered up for real life medical teaching. In the end I would say that the film has less blood than "Saw", more story than "Scream" and just about the same endurability as "The Skeleton Key" or "The Descent".
If you are familiar with German filmstars, then Anna Loos and Franka Potente are worth watching for eye-candy. If you are into any sort of slasher films, then this wouldn't disappoint with its various scenes of anatomical obscenity. However if you're into more satisfying slashers like "A Nightmare On Elm Street" or "Psycho" then this isn't something for you. And if you're into more artsy horror-thrillers like "Haute Tension" then this would most probably not be your cup of tea. If I were to liken this to one particular movie with which it is most similar to, I would say this reminds me a lot of "I Know What You Did Last Summer", especially with the hot-stuff cast.
The DVD is loaded with extras though - deleted scenes, interviews, featurettes, storyboards, filmographies and even a very sexy Anna Loos music video of the track "My Truth". Not too bad if you're game for some light viewing on a weekday night.
